Huawei ordered to pay royalties to avoid smartphone sales ban in UK

Huawei will have to pay licence fees to avoid a smartphone sales ban in the UK.

The High Court, in a ruling earlier this month, ordered Huawei to pay royalties on millions of smartphones the Chinese company sells across the globe to US company Unwired Planet that owns thousands of patents. Huawei has been fighting a legal battle with Unwired Planet over the issue for three years.

The injunction has been put on hold as Huawei prepares to go on appeal against the ruling. However, as the company is ready to pay royalties as ordered by the court, sales of its smartphones are unlikely to be stopped.

"Huawei has received the decision of the High Court of England and Wales. We are still evaluating the decision as well as our possible next steps," a Huawei spokesman told the Telegraph.

"We do not believe that this decision will adversely affect our business operations either in the United Kingdom or other markets. As one of the world's leading intellectual property rights (IPR) owners, Huawei has a strong record of respecting the IPR of others, in addition to doing whatever is required to protect our own such IPR assets.

"Huawei remains committed to providing its cutting-edge products and services to our customers without interruption," the spokesperson said.

Justice Birss ruled that royalties on global sales would be "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory".

Huawei welcomed the ruling as the royalty rates were reasonably lower than what Unwired had asked for.